Friday, June 3, 2011
The Friday Five, Pre-Fringe Edition, June 3, 2011
BEST FRINGE NON THEATRE EVENTS
by Estelle Rosen
Recipe for fun: Place on stage Zack Winters, Sweet Sweet Jimmy Priest, Rufus O’Hallahan. Mix in eleven second dance parties. Stir well. Enjoy!
June 10-18 – THE 13th HOUR - Cabaret du Mile End - 5240 Park Ave.
Review: Slut (R)evolution (Fringe 2011)
Reviewed by Jessica Wei
Slut (R)evolution is a witty, original, often uncomfortable, and raw one-act biographical window into the makings of a self-professed slut. From a cozy red loveseat in Café Soufflé, Cameryn Moore invites her audience into her world of Mormon beginnings, fetish clubs, BDSM tents, and train cars in Russia with mysterious strangers. In other words, it's the quintessential Fringe experience. As an actor, Moore has some difficulty forming a connection with her audience in the first half of her performance, but once her eyes unglue themselves from the top left corner of the cafe window-front and her disjointed stories weave together, the intensity hits its climax. And you feel it. And it's uncomfortable.
Her past is pretty much what one might expect – “Casual Encounters” on Craigslist, hook-ups with sexually ambiguous fetishists, and, of course, drugs and sex (but usually not both of them together). The writing ranges from provocative and gut-wrenching to just plain cheesy. But what sets this play apart from the great many one-person performance Fringe flops is that Moore - actor, character and genuinely interesting human being - is just so damned likable. You don't have to be from her world to want to sit down and have coffee with this person. And you certainly don't need to have experienced her types of sex-capades to relate to her inner insecurities. All in all, Slut (R)evolution is a adequately-executed look into an thoroughly fascinating life that will leave you either running into or away from the nearest fetish shop.
Rating:
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Review: Hot Pepper (FTA 2011)
(Photo: Toru Yokota)
Can We Add Some Salt To That, Too?Japan's HOT PEPPER… needs a bit more spice
By David King
To fully understand Japanese creator Toshiki Okadia's theatre triptych HOT PEPPER, AIR CONDITIONER, AND THE FAREWELL SPEECH, one has to not only be open to a lesson in Japanese language and culture, but to keep in mind that each work in this theatre trilogy originated with one successful, much-shorter creation HOT PEPPER. In this production, it's definitely important to read the programme notes from the writer / director before the piece opens. As a little experiment for myself, I intentionally didn't, just to see how much this theatrical painting could stand alone without explanation.
Review: Gardenia (FTA)
Photo: Luc Monsaert
Gardenia is a fucking masterpieceWhy they're swooning everywhere
by Richard Burnett
Audiences and critics across Europe swooned over this 90-minute meditation on age and beauty, and at its June 1 North American premiere at the Monument National, it was easy to see why.
Inspired by the Spanish film Yo Say Asi, about the real-life closing of a transvestite cabaret in Barcelona, Gardenia also tells the true-life story of six aging transvestites who have spent their double-lives working as civil servants, nurses and office clerks. After a faded transsexual – played by real-life old-school Belgian transsexual Vanessa Van Durme – announces the closing of the Gardenia cabaret, our transvestites dress in drag one last time and we witness a poignant musical set to music of Aznavour, Dalida and Ravel. And because the cast all used to be real-life transvestites and drag queens in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it is rooted in the real and gives the play real-life edge. This isn't a made-up story. It's for real.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Fringe 2011...WE'RE OFF!
Tonight our reviewers begin to deploy to the actual shows in this year's Fringe
Beyond the Fourth Wall, June 1, 2011
Not necessarily theatre – and not necessarily Fringe!by Estelle Rosen
June 5-25
June 12
3pm
Fringe Park
June 12
5pm
Fringe Park
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